There would not have been any argument if you'd accepted the fact 3 pages ago
There is no point to accept, you are wrong to call Celtic a British Club, they are a Scottish Club.....if you accepted that fact then we wouldn't have to keep reminding you that was just the least of the stereotypical claptrap that you psoted in your OP about the Northern Irish.
Its wrong to say theres no such thing as British football because theres no British football association.
There has been in the past (and they are looking at again) an English/Scottish supercup called the Anglo Scottish cup, which was last played in 1982, it was played 6 season in a row.
The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a separate league created by the Scottish and English Football League Associations, it had no Association of it's own, which is why, when the Scottish League pulled out, it was discontinued.
It was not and never was intended as a British League Association and it was never officially recognised or instituted as such by the Association Football governing bodies.
So it is wrong to claim it as an example of an Affiliated British Football Association.
Actually that is also wrong, there is an agreement between the SFA, FA, NIFA and WFA that while all players for all countries are legally allowed to play for each other as they are all British, that they dont as a gentlemans agreement without a birth link to the country.
Scotland could technically have called up David Beckham and Steven Gerrard and England could have taken Kenny Dalglish.
Actually they couldn't especially since 1993 when the rules regarding the Home Nations and player eligibility were codified by each Countries FA.
The FIFA rules are generally thus:
1. Any person holding the nationality of a country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of his country. The Executive Committee shall decide on the conditions of eligibility for any Player whose nationality entitles him to represent more than one Association.
2. As a general rule, any Player who has already represented one Association (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category may not play an international match with another Association team.
3. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if the Player is eligible to play for several Association teams due to his nationality, the following exceptions apply:
(a) Up to his 21st birthday, a player may only once request changing the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches. A Player may exercise this right to change Associations only if he has not played at “A” international level for his current Association and if, at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition of any other category, he already had such nationalities. Changing Associations is not permitted during the preliminary competition of a FIFA competition, continental championship or Olympic Tournaments if a player has already been fielded in a match of one of these competitions.
(b) Any Player who has already acquired eligibility to play for one Association but has another nationality imposed upon him by a government authority, is also entitled to change associations. This provision is not subject to any age limits.
4. Any Player who wishes to exercise this right to change Associations shall submit a written and substantiated request to the FIFA general secretariat. After submitting the request, the player is no longer qualified to play for his current Association’s team. The Players’ Status Committee shall decide on the request. The committee’s decision may be brought before the Appeal Committee. The Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players contain more detailed provisions.
5. Any Players who have already had their 21st birthday at the time of implementation of these provisions and who fulfil the requirements in par. 3 (a) are also entitled to submit such a request to change Associations. This entitlement will expire definitively twelve months after implementation of this provision."
FIFA leave the eligibility of any given player to the countries FA, most countries this is a straight forward thing, as the nationality or more accurately the citizenship of a player and the overall FA are one and the same, however obviously with the Home Nations this is complicated by the fact that each home nations each have a seperate FA and thus they came to an official and legal agreement (not gentleman's handshake) that is as follows:
A Players holding a British passport is eligible to play for the country of his birth, the country of the birth of either of his natural parents or the country of birth of any of his natural grandparents. If the player, his natural parents and his natural grandparents were born outside the U.K., he may play for the home country of his choice. Our understanding is that once a player has played for one of the home countries, even if it is only a friendly match, the 1993 agreement precludes him playing for another home country.
The FIFA rule change for players under 21 must be followed in the U.K., however. Under U.K. law, a player (or anyone, for that matter) who was born abroad becomes eligible for a British passport after five years of lawful residence in the country, and he thus becomes eligible to play for one of the home countries provided he has not played for another national side in official competition.
So basically all FIFA are considering is the eligibility of a Player to register/play for a specific Association, such as the Scottish, English or French FA etc....it leaves the question of who is eligible via nationality to the Football Associations themselves.
So, as the respective Home Nation Associations are all independent and they have a codified system of rules regarding eligibility it is indeed correct to refer to the teams which are affiliated to the respective Associations by their respective Home Nation, for example Celtic are a Scottish Club, rather than a British one.....
Isn't arguing about Football Associations and eligibility far more fun than expressing hatred for the Irish, or British depending on which side of the divide you sit on....
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